Web Directories have been the norm for the world wide web and for search engine optimization for a long time. But are they still relevant in this age of advanced AI Google Updates? Well, as Head of Web SPAM at Google John Mueller said, “in general, no”. But the key words in that answer are “in general”. That’s the usual answer we get from John and, as much as we’d like to say we will dissect it, the truth is that we can only be speculating and interpreting things based on own knowledge and experience.
Are_Web_Directories_Still_Relevant_for_SEO_2022 Let’s jump
to it and find out whether web directories are still useful for SEO in 2022. Try the Tool That Will Boost Your Traffic Whether you are an SEO Professional, Digital Marketing Agency, SMB or Brand Owner, cognitiveSEO is the only SEO software you’ll ever need. Site Audit On-the-Page and Off-page Factors for Google Rankings Keywords Research and Rank Tracking Content Optimization In-depth Backlink Analysis And Many More! Start Free Trial What Are Web Directories Really? Why Directories Were
Created Why Directories Died The Web Directory
Legacy Do Web Directories Still Work for SEO in 2022? The Problem With Today’s Directories Local SEO & Directory Listings Directories That Are Still Good Why Do We Still Have Web Directories? Should You Disavow Directory Links? What Are Web Directories Really? In order to better understand why directories work or not in 2022 we have to create a background for them. Like an introduction.
Most people probably think of directories as just
sites that list other sites. While that’s true, the reality is that they’re much more. Before modern search engines, such as Google, web directories were THE INTERNET. Why Web Directories Were Created In the very early days of the internet, only a few people had websites. Internet connections were uncommon and there wasn’t much profit to be made out of it. Still, different websites emerged, in different niches.
However, you had to actually remember the domain names in
order to access those websites, as there was overseas chinese in australia no Google. But, as the internet grew, more websites started showing up. Soon enough, people couldn’t remember all those names. But some clever guys from Yahoo! had the brilliant idea to store the best website into something they called a web directory. yahoo web directory seo At first, only a few websites were listed, the most ‘popular’ ones or the ones that they
thought were worthy of being listed. This way, you would only
have to remember one website (Yahoo!) if you wanted to find all the other good sites. At first, the sites were listed alphabetically but, as the number grew, they started getting listed under categories and subcategories. This way it was easier for users to find what they needed. Web directories made money out of selling advertising space or boosting certain results in exchange for a fee. Why Web Directories
Died Unfortunately,
getting way too high, people soon realized it wasn’t so convenient to browse through all those categories. It would take too much time and, ultimately why lead generation is crucial in the real the best results were mixed up with the less good ones. This is how search engines appeared. It was by far more convenient to type in a keyword and get a list of top results than to browse through categories trying to figure out which website is the best. web directories died The search engines worked on algorithms, just as they do now (although not as complex).
Depending on the keywords in the title and other factors,
some sites would rank better than others. Yahoo! had its own search engine. However, it is no secret that Google took the lead because of their improved algorithm, but this isn’t the only reason why Google eventually took the lead. Yahoo! was a giant back then, in the days of Yahoo! Mail, News, Answers and Messenger, but a number of bad decisions made them fade out. The Web Directory Legacy Even though web directories dropped dramatically in popularity, people still used them. But not for what they were
supposed to used them. As much as people say
that web directories are still useful, the truth is that people have been using them merely for link building and online marketing for a long time. I’m 25 now and I’ve been using a computer since I was 6. My first contact with the internet was in 2002 and I can’t recall ever browsing on a web directory. I remember Yahoo! and Google. I remember ODC ,DC++ and other popular hubs. I remember Floppy
disks with drivers. But I don’t remember web directories.
In fact, my first contact with web directories snbd host was back in 2013, when I first started learning about SEO. I had probably ended up on similar websites before, but not solely for searching a specific website. Although the truth was that web directories weren’t of interest to the general public, new web directories kept popping up. There were of course, useful directories, such as business listings (Yellow Pages), which people visited if they wanted to search for a particular business (name, phone, address, legal details,
etc.). There were also niche directories, which only
listed websites in a particular field. Those might have got some organic traffic and potential customers when people searched for things like “list of XYZ websites”. But the truth is that, most of the time, web directories were only there because links brought better rankings. People found ways to get listed on as many directories as they could, therefore destroying the purpose of a directory. Even paid directories
were full of SPAM. Fees were usually low, ranging from $5
to $20 if you wanted to get a listing on the homepage. However, most of the time that wouldn’t bring much more traffic to your site, since most of the users visiting web directories were SEOs trying to build links. I’m not afraid to say that I only visited web directories for link building purposes. Everybody was doing it and it worked. It was easy and convenient. But the question is… do they still work now? Do Web Directories Still Work for SEO in 2022? In a local SEO social media group somebody tried to prove a
point by showing us a #1 result for a keyword, claiming that he had
only built 2 directory links to that page and it’s now #1. He was trying to attack us “white hats” that always state web directories don’t work when, in fact, he had proof that they do. Only problem was the keyword he was ranking for had virtually 0 searches and the competition was basically inexistent. Did the web directory links actually helped him to rank better in Google’s search results? Probably… Did he prove any points? Definitely not. Web Directories probably still have a small impact on your rankings,
just like any other site that links to you and passes Page Rank. However, because they’ve been abused as an SEO tactic over the years, Google penalizes people that use web directories. With the rise of Penguin 4.0, many of them are probably ignored. Or, as John Mueller (the current Head of Web SPAM @ Google) said: generally no. — ? John ? (@JohnMu) February 25, 2017 Bu that answer can be interpreted in very
many ways. Let’s see first why web directories got such a bad reputation in SEO. Web Directories’ Main Issues for SEO I’ve already discussed how web directories don’t really provide much value as users don’t really use them for anything other than SEO. However, the story doesn’t end there: Web directories got spammy & tricky: As people always want the quick way, they started automating processes. With more
